The value of his Wal-Mart holdings went up $30.9 million to $202.6 million.

Image via WikipediaLee Scott scores again, even in a 'recession', a CNN Money Blog analyzes how bad CEO's did in the market, then they look at Lee Scott...

Wal-Mart continues world domination, acquiring over 58% of a Chilean supermarket.

Weekly Wal-Mart News, Tax loopholes close, Lee Scott for Universal Healthcare and a new private label line.

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeYesterday Lee Scott addressed the National Retail Federation in New York City, urging cooperation to solve the nations health care crisis.

Lee Scott, the outgoing chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, asked business leaders to embrace such initiatives as universal health care, renewable energy and immigration reform during a presentation to attendees at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show here yesterday.

He [Lee Scott], also sees a new consumer mindset.

Local retailers throughout China are teaming up to battle Wal-Mart.

The recession finally hits Wal-Mart.

The first Wal-Mart neighborhood market opened in Virginia...They also opened one in Florida today.

Wal-Mart also continues to violate Connecticut state tax laws, even after promising to comply.

The Animal Defence League of Canada is celebrating a "major victory" after Wal-Mart Canada agreed to pull a type of Chinese-made slippers that contained real rabbit fur from its shelves.

Another Wal-Mart Tax loophole may come to an end, this time in West Virginia.

The UFCW is gearing up for their Wal-Mart battle in Canada.

More info on Wal-Mart's new private label line "the Wal-Mart Great Value line"

And if that's not enough Wal-Mart news, they're also on the verge of setting up shop in Russia.

Wal-Mart still not good for NYC

A study released yesterday by the non-profit Fiscal Policy Institute shows that retail is the industry sector that employs the biggest chunk of the 1.3 million low-wage workers in this city -- that is, workers earning less than $13 per hour. Nearly half of these 176,000 low-wage retail workers earn less than $10 an hour, and the majority lack health insurance.


This re-affirms our belief that Wal-Mart's business ethics and practices are not good for our city. There is more to life than cheap underwear.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Headlines...

Image via Wikipedia
Wal-Mart refused to allow a Salvation Army Volunteer to ring his holiday bell inside the store in the midst of a blizzard.

Wal-Mart may try to open a second Chicago store...

An Arab- and Muslim-American man filed a $12 million lawsuit Thursday against a Wal-Mart store that caters to his community -- saying employees discriminated against him and fired him because of his background.

About 150 workers at a Wal-Mart store here became the ninth group of Canadian Wal-Mart employees to be granted union certification, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said Thursday.
Read more of this story

3 Years Later, another Wal-Mart unionized in Canada

Image via Wikipedia

After three-and-a-half years of legal wrangling, over 150 Wal-Mart workers in Hull, Que., have become the latest Canadian “associates” to join the union.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Ufcw-Canada-931602.html

Attention: Assignment Editor, Business/Financial Editor, City Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor

HULL, QUE., NEWS RELEASE--(Marketwire - Dec. 18, 2008) -

Over 150 Wal-Mart workers in Hull, Que., have become the ninth group of Canadian "associates" to join the country's largest private-sector union after a Dec. 17 decision by the Quebec Labour Board awarded bargaining rights for the Hull location to the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW Canada).

"After nine times, the message coming from Wal-Mart workers in Canada to Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Arkansas, couldn't be louder or clearer: Canadian Wal-Mart workers want to be union members," says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.

"Hopefully, this decision will help Wal-Mart to understand that Canada is a place where labour rights are human rights, and where people take their rights very seriously. Hopefully, Wal-Mart won't squander another chance to prove its critics wrong, and it will take this opportunity to show the world that it believes in human rights by sitting down with these Hull workers to negotiate a contract in good faith," said Hanley, making reference to Wal-Mart's past practice of closing stores or departments shortly after becoming unionized.

The Dec. 17 decision affects the Hull main store, and comes three-and-a-half years after the union originally made an application for certification. The store's adjoining Tire & Lube Express was certified as a separate bargaining unit in 2005. The labour relations process for the main store was drawn-out by several legal challenges put forward by the company.

According to Louis Bolduc, executive assistant to the UFCW Canada National President, negotiations for the two Hull Wal-Mart units will commence as soon as possible, but bargaining dates have yet to be scheduled.

UFCW Canada is Canada's largest private-sector union with over 250,000 members coast to coast.

/For further information: Guy Chenier, President UFCW Canada Local 486 (819) 777 – 8822 /


IN: ECONOMY, JUSTICE, LABOUR, RETAIL

For more information, please contact

Derek Johnstone, UFCW Canada National Communications Dept., UFCW CANADA
Primary Phone: 416-675-1104 ext. 222
Secondary Phone: 416-720-8858

It's only Tuesday...

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAnd here is what Wal-Mart has accomplished this week:

NYSUT and the state Labor-Religion Coalition are sounding the alarm over a recent report that links a popular school-uniform clothing line sold at Wal-Mart to a Bangladeshi factory that forces its workers to labor in extreme sweatshop conditions.

Wal-Mart has also finally come clean and fessed up to charging illegal taxes in Connecticut.

It keeps getting better for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., they were ordered to pay up to $54.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the discount giant cut workers' break time and allowed employees to work off the clock in Minnesota.

Moscow News picked up the death on Black Friday story.

The Seattle Times writes the audio accounts leading up to Damour's death.

Yet the shoppers don't stop, Wal-Mart, adding to its counter-trend achievements this year by posting the highest earnings among retailers, $13.7 billion. The profit is more than earnings projections for the next three companies' combined,

The Building Blocks Project

Every family needs access to healthy, affordable food; and every worker has the right to organize, earn a living wage, and have quality health insurance and benefits. That is why the Building Blocks Project brings together so many different people—workers, healthcare professionals, hunger and nutrition advocates, food access experts, elected leaders, community activists and faith-based leaders—to ensure that all communities are built on a solid foundation of three Building Blocks: Good Food, Good Jobs, and Good Health.

Be part of the conversation and join the movement! Learn more about the Building Blocks Project, find the facts about food justice, become involved in your community, and stand in solidarity with other workers and eaters so that we can all share in the American Dream. Please visit the Building Blocks Project’s new website (http://buildingblocksproject.org/), which we are happy to launch today

Wal-Mart sued for 'Mind Control'?

A man in Canada is suing Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for alleged mind control, satanism and witchcraft. The man claims he was "subject to invasive brain computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery." He is seeking $2 billion in damages.

Read the entire story here.

Unfair labour practices case against Wal-Mart moving forward

Unfair labour practices case against Wal-Mart moving forward

Leader-Post

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=43147640-9156-46ec-aae2-f13e31c2291f

REGINA -- An unfair labour practices case -- involving allegations that Wal-Mart Canada tried to intimidate workers in Saskatchewan by closing a store in Quebec -- can proceed, according to a ruling by the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board.

The board, in a decision released Oct. 24, dismissed a "preliminary application'' by Wal-Mart to quash the application by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is seeking permission to represent Wal-Mart workers in Weyburn, North Battleford and Moose Jaw.

The UFCW argued that the threat of closure and the closure of a Wal-Mart store in Jonquirere, Que., after it was unionized was an unfair labour practice designed to intimidate workers, including Wal-Mart workers in Saskatchewan.

John Beckman, a lawyer who represents Wal-Mart, argued against the union application on several grounds, including one that the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board had no jurisdiction to make rulings on events which occurred in Quebec.

But the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board ruled that it "has the jurisdiction to inquire into, hear and determine the application'' made by the union.

"The fact that the actions of Wal-Mart upon which the allegations are based were committed outside of Saskatchewan does not mean that they cannot constitute violation of the restriction on intimidation of its employees in (Saskatchewan),'' the labour relations board ruled.

The ruling by the board is the latest one in a long-standing fight between the UFCW and Wal-Mart about the unionization of Wal-Mart workers in Saskatchewan and about related legal and labour relations issues.

© Leader-Post 2008

Wal-Mart Closes Tire Center after workers vote to Unionize...

Image via Wikipedia

Wal-Mart closes unionized Canada center [Associated Press] 

Union-backed groups Wal-Mart Watch and WakeUpWalMart criticized the company for the closure. "The Gatineau workers have merely exercised their human rights under Canadian Law, something that is clearly unacceptable to Wal-Mart," Wal-Mart Watch director David Nasser said.

 

Wal-Mart Closes Quebec Tire Center After Labor Accord [Bloomberg News]
Wal-Mart Watch, a U.S. worker advocacy group, said the shop closing shows the retailer is willing to do anything to prevent workers from receiving better wages and benefits. "The closure in Canada clearly shows that Wal-Mart has no desire to change," it said in an e-mailed statement.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., known for its strong stance against workers unionizing, on Thursday closed a tire and lube center in Canada where workers had voted to organize.
A Wal-Mart spokesman said the five workers and one manager at the center were offered jobs at comparable Wal-Mart facilities or elsewhere in the store, which is located in Gatineau, Quebec and has more than 250 workers. The store itself will remain open.

Wal-Mart stories of the week

Newsday covers the barred opening of the Riverhead Wal-Mart.

Another Wal-Mart supplier has been accused of sweatshop conditions, employees were forced into 19 hour work days while being paid sometimes less than $20.00 a month.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have reached a settlement over alleged violations of the Clear Air Act, which prohibits the sale or distribution of nonessential products containing ozone-depleting substances. 

Headlines...

Greetings,


We haven't had a legitimate update in about a month, but here's what's been going on in Wal-Mart world....

Massachusetts has been deprived of $600M in unpaid fines by Wal-Mart.

They've pulled the plug on their DRM music system. Leaving all customers who tried to buy music legally confused...

They just announced today, they  will close 20 stores and cut its work force by about 350 in Japan.

Somehow they're selling illegal wood, smuggled in from Russia, as toilet seats.  Reported by the New Yorker.

Wal-Mart stores will now strictly focus on customer experiences.

They're also being sued for a variety of violations in NJ.
 
The Illinois Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Wal-Mart in federal court on behalf of a Rockford woman who claims she was fired because she had epilepsy.


They were also paying employees in store vouchers as payment in Mexico


"Always Low Prices" isn't always a good thing for Wal-Mart, apparently. The discounter was warned by Puerto Rican authorities on Thursday that it was selling milk too cheaply on the island.



Thats just one month. wow.

Building Blocks Project

Image via WikipediaWe're currently involved with developing a website to backbone a campaign geared towards taking action against the current Supermarket crisis throughout the five boroughs. The project is called the 'Building Blocks Project'. Here's a quick synopsis of Local 1500's project, if you would like to get involved just follow this link and sign up!

The lack of affordable and quality food available to consumers through traditional Supermarkets has reached crisis levels. Communities are affected both economically and with health related problems. Good jobs are being lost due to store closings, and we are failing to create new jobs through new supermarket development. Diabetes, obesity and heart related illnesses are at epidemic levels.

Through our Building Blocks Project, we intend to form a long-term coalition of labor unions, healthcare professionals, hunger and nutrition advocates, food access experts, elected leaders, community activists and faith-based leaders to ensure that all communities have the basic Building Blocks of good food, good jobs and good health. When a community is built upon this foundation, it produces positive results for all residents of New York State.

Wal-Mart Unions will remain only in China

The first Wal-Mart trade union in China was formed after the company bowed to government demands for organized labor in its stores, The New York Times reported Friday.

Wal-Mart's reluctance to allow unions, particularly in the United States where they remain banned from stores, has been a point of controversy for many years. But the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions fought for the right to create branches in the company's 60 outlets.

Read the story here.

Wal-Mart inks a Union Deal???!?

The following stories about China, Taiwan and Hong Kong appeared in the media today:

Wal-Mart, Chinese Unions Sign Agreements in Two Cities

Wal-Mart has signed union contracts in China?!

Here's more Bloomberg News: Wal-Mart inks two Union Deals.

Read it to believe it...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A southwest Missouri woman sued Wal-Mart, local health officials and Cox Health Systems, claiming they discriminated against her and her monkey named Richard.

Read it here.

Buying Shoe's at Wal-Mart

Adidas Tells Judge Wal-Mart Sport Shoes Aren't Fit to Run In [Bloomberg News]
At least two Wal-Mart athletic shoe models are built with substandard materials and fell apart during simulated running tests,

Wal-Mart News of the day

Awaiting a Big Blue Box and an Altered World [New York Times]
Monica Byrne, one of the owners of Tini, a bar on Van Brunt Street, also was generally supportive of the store’s presence. "If it was a Wal-Mart, I’d be protesting," she said. "This could be a really good thing."

City and Labor Leaders Reach Deal on Plan to Develop Willets Point [New York Times]
The city also agreed to look favorably upon developers who propose job-intensive businesses at Willets Point that would pay at least $10 an hour. At the same time, the city said it would discourage "suburban models of big-box stores," a reference to Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

Big retailers may follow Ikea to Red Hook [Daily News (N.Y.)]
Discount giant Wal-Mart tops the list of heavy hitters that have looked at development sites in the gritty-glam nabe, where a container port and a cruise-ship terminal co-exist with Civil War-era warehouse buildings, public housing projects and artists' studios.

Wal-Mart's stores in Hawaii will be part of a pilot solar project outfitting 22 Wal-Mart stores,

And the NY Sun interviews Obama's Economic Policy advisor.

Brooklyn Paper, dreaming of another Wal-Mart....again

Today's Brooklyn Paper writes

With Fulton Mall changing, it is time for city officials to reconsider Wal-Mart’s attempt to bring its low prices and vast selection to Downtown Brooklyn

I'll start by asking, what kind of jobs would you like to bring to your community? A decent wage with affordable health care, a pension maybe? Some guaranteed raises and sick days? Would this be too much to ask for the company who has sat a top of the Fortune 500 list four out of the last five years? Or do we want to bring a surplus of jobs that aren't providing health care and a decent wage to our already economically struggling community? Has Wal-Mart somehow in a little over a year when they were kept out of the Fulton Mall, changed their ways? Are they providing their full-time employees with affordable health care? Are they treating women with the same respect as they used to? I missed that memo. I don't think we need to have another blog post regarding the struggles Wal-Mart employees continue to face. Just google search 'wal-mart worker' and check out what you get if you're unaware. I'd like to speak about the collateral damage a Wal-Mart would bring to a community like the Fulton Mall although. Nowhere in the Brooklyn Papers article is there a mention of the hundreds of shop owners throughout the Fulton Mall. What about the other businesses that call the Fulton Mall home? What would happen to them if Wal-Mart would open? We're all for having affordable quality food and goods, but at what cost?


So what will happen to the Fulton Mall if Wal-Mart comes? We pondered this last year and surveyed the stores within a one block radius of the potential Wal-Mart. We found that Wal-Mart carries all of the same items that every store on the carried. Now sure, pedestrian traffic would increase significantly with a Wal-Mart at the Fulton Street Mall, but who is going to shop at the Jeweler or Shoe store, or the Electronic store across the street when you can waltz right into Wal-Mart for all your shopping needs, probably at a lower price. How many businesses will be forced to close their doors? What price are you essentially paying for a Wal-Mart? What kind of collateral damage does Wal-Mart do to your community? Countless studies have been conducted on the impact Wal-Mart has on communities. What this city needs when we're facing an immense supermarket shortage while drug stores like CVS and Rite-Aid continue expand, is a company to provide quality jobs, quality goods at an affordable price. Wal-Mart should review the Food Policy principles created by Local 1500 (right). Which call for a "...citywide education program to promote the three basic tenets that are the building blocks of all communities: Good Food, Good Jobs & Good Health..." All of which correlate to one another. We need to build, and Wal-Mart would not serve well as a foundation.





Do you remember last February when Wal-Mart tried 'sneaking' into the Fulton Mall? Remember politicians, residents and community groups rallying at the steps of the proposed site at Albee Square? All of whom protested and demanded the developer not to allow another irresponsible employer into the neighborhood. We wrote on these problems last year, after the developer promised not to bring a Wal-Mart, it was then Lee Scott saying "I don't care if we're ever there [New York]"





Leticia James of the New York City Council, speaking against Wal-Mart at the Fulton Mall.

Wal-Mart population reaches 2 million

Almost 2 years ago, Wal-Mart announced they planned on hiring over 150,000 more workers over the next five years, bringing their workforce to a stunning 2 million. This week they announced they have reached 2 million employees worldwide.